Cold War Modern: Architecture

Finally got my copy of Cold War Modern Design 1945-1970 (V&A) delivered today which has not only patched up alot of my dissertation research but offered a much better perspective and contextualized approach to the subject matter. Although the majority of the content is art  focused, there is a considerable amount on the cultural, ideological and political mechanisms behind the Atomic Age and the Modern Movement which is essential to my essay.


In the chapter Europe Reconstructed, Europe Divided p42/43 the main focus is on the reconstruction of the war torn countries that were in need of rebuilding their societies based upon the post-war mindset, which differed amongst the countries and their context to the war.
It predominantly focusses on the communist and capitalist ideologies that were causing conflict in some of eastern Europe, especially countries like Russia where the magnificence of communism was required to be implemented into the architectural structure of the major cities. Soviet buildings did not reflect the underlying/predominant ideal that communism was a force that is pushing its society into the new, "long formal avenues with monumental sculpture and buildings dressed with classical columns and lintels - hardly a vision of the future." 
However, the menace of modern architecture was coming from America, following a large smear campaign by the Eastern Bloc - which America realistically pushed the boundaries for modernity - particularly in Germany in 1954 the Handbuch Fur Architekten spoke out against this capito-imperial menace, "As in other capitalist countries, building is predominantly formalist and subordinated to the cosmopolitan ideology of American Imperialism". Architecture is replaced with mere construction, with no real focus on the elegance or aesthetics of buildings but only on their functionality within the emerging movement that hid the 'cold face of capitalism' in the following building plans.


This echoed the 'war psychosis' that followed the war, mass paranoia and panic within the ranks of the military where the military industrial needs were put as priority over the standard social needs of the general populace, this is evident when considering the Danube Steelworks case.

Moving on a little bit to 1952, when the Stalin-Allee was opened, it was meant to be a palace/place of refuge and pride for the workers of the state to reside in. Instead it demonstrated the government's prioritization of housing schemes that demoralized the public rather than motivating them, it revealed the ideological values of the social strata.

Stalin-Allee could be compared to the Fallout Universe's 1952 US Governmental scheme Project Safehouse that exploited the country's need for safe housing, with a promise of modernity and a secured future in which to live. Instead they turned out to be a large series of botched social experiments which mirrors that of what we see here; a change in domestic arrangements and a change in social dynamics.

America with its ears ever present in most of the conversations occuring worldwide, sensed this paradigm shift and started a European tour with their 'living exhibitions' which were used to demonstrate the simple, elegant functionality of a modern living environment.

"Domestic appliances were used to forge connections between individualism reconstruction and consumerism"

It started in the late 40's/early 50's where American companies/governments/corporations would openly invite architects, planners, engineers and other technocrats on extensive study tours to North America which some of the technocrats would be offered jobs or contracts which obviously influenced the designs and products the Americans were eager to sell. Leo De Jonge (architect from Netherlands) was one of these people touring:

"I was not pro-American. And I thought that a lot of the trip was pure propaganda, our presence was supposed to sell the American people on the idea that so much money was going to Europe." which it obviously wasnt, despite the need for rebuilding in Europe the American Dream was still willing to conform to its exploitative, capitalist endeavours.

Conrad Hilton (of HIlton Hotels)  gives a shining example of this, in the late 1950's, when US businesses sought to capitalize on the economic recovery, Hilton wrote in his autobiography that each of his hotels were a 'laboratory' that people could 'inspect America and its ways at their leisure'. Describing international hotels - such as the Berlin Hilton - and those in areas considered 'hot' by the cold war as 'bulwarks against the communist threat' but the reality was that a more visible Americanization of the European cityscapes occurred, with corporate headquarters and air-conditioned hotels.

Moving away from America and its plentitude, we now look at a much more cohesive basis for Project Safehouse; Unite d'Habitation in Marseilles which was essentially a 'social condenser' inspired by previous soviet architectural designs, it was meant to produce new socialized domestic spaces that could either destroy or isolate the private world of the bourgeoisie,"the cultural cold war forged weapons from modern home furnishings" it boasted a whole host of services and commodities such as a swimming pool, launderette and a daycare centre which would have easily provided the standard of living needed in modern society. A complete world, offering the community services needed for modern living - 'a monument in which everyday life of the home is elevated to the level of public monument' by means of creating a visual, social and cultural landmark that will forever be embedded in the population's mind just like those structures that mark the monumental loss of life, but instead perpetuate a capitalist ideal with a neo-imperialist overtone.